I ran away from teaching to the country to grow veggies. There are also some chooks and a pair of troublesome goats who were so much trouble they had to go! My simple green life isn't always as simple or as green as I'd like...but I keep trying!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Purpose AND pleasure

A path serves a purpose - to get people from A to B. Practicality, most often dictates a straight, or slightly curvy path. This path in the front garden was one of the latter - a bit curvy and linking the drive with the other side of the house. It was narrow, tree-roots had moved the bricks, making them trip-hazards, and the weeds were colonising it.

Here it is after I convinced the Cook to take up the bricks. You can see from this shot that it leads to the outdoor kitchen and soon to be outdoor living area.
I also wanted to screen this area from the drive.

I fantasized about a path that would invite you to explore.

'Come on down here. Can you see what's at the end?

Can you guess what is around the corner?'

So last spring I began to dig...and that is about as far as I got!

Now I finally have a lovely new garden path, which curves gently around the weeping cherry to the seat you can just see (above), then curves back upon itself, before straightening again to lead to the outdoor living area.

There will be a seat at the far end, where it turns to the left....
a reason to venture down the path in the first place.

It looks a bit silly because you can see both ends of it at the same time and the curve seems ridiculous and unnecessary. But a bit of judicial planting will soon fix that.
The pic below is looking back the other way.
There will be a garden between the path and those pine logs.

I am so pleased and excited by my new bit of landscaping and it has only taken me 14 months to get this far!

The new garden beds have created a circular space around the silver birch. You can sort of see it in the last photo. I am going to put a sneak path through the garden bed from the new path to the circle. I would like to remove the grass and plant something that can be walked on, occasionally, preferably with a nice smell.

Any ideas?

Do you think I could also plant daffodils and other bulbs in this circle to become naturalised as well?

Fabulous. Glad to hear it didn't take too long to finish - I've been waiting for our house renovation to finish dor 10 years. Bulbs are a good idea. I've got irises which are terrific. There are some nice ground cover thymes that you can walk on.

Wow, what a job you have done Hazel. I know it took a while but at least you can say you did it yourself. Love curvy paths that make you wonder what is around the corner. Bulbs would look great, daffodils, jonquils...fabulous! I don't know of any ground covers sorry.